An average of "around 200 female and male Afghans are being brought each week to Germany from Pakistan alone," the Funke Media Group reported in its Tuesday (May 31) newspapers citing information provided by the foreign ministry.

According to the ministry, people were also leaving Afghanistan via Iran. However, tensions for Afghan citizens there have intensified lately, the Red Cross chief said recently.

At the beginning of the year alone, 5,000 people without passports received support with leaving Afghanistan overland and subsequently with their onward travel to Germany, Funke Media Group reported.

The evacuation efforts of Germany's government have been repeatedly criticized since the radical-Islamic Taliban regained control of Afghanistan. In early April, the German government admitted that a number of Afghans who were due to be airlifted out of Afghanistan died before they could be evacuated to Germany. They had worked for the German forces and had been offered safety in Germany following the Taliban takeover.

In early May, news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the German interior ministry was considering a limit to admission numbers of Afghan refugees. Under the plans, a maximum of 5,000 Afghans considered to be at risk in their home country would be admitted per year.

Also read: What's the status of displaced Afghans worldwide?

Over 18,000 visas issued in nine months

After more than a month's wait, the foreign ministry last week answered a few of a list of questions InfoMigrants had submitted about evacuating local staff and other vulnerable people from Afghanistan.

According to a ministry spokesperson, more than two thirds of Afghans who had received approval for admission to Germany from the German government have been able to come to Germany so far.

In the roughly nine months since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, according to the ministry, German visa offices issued a total of more than 18,500 visas for local staff, especially vulnerable persons who received approval for admission from the government, as well as their relatives.

The ministry spokesperson added that numerous people managed to leave Afghanistan without support. "The departure options change time and again. On top of security aspects, which need to be reevaluated constantly, the conditions in the transit countries are also subject to change." 

Thousands of Afghans are still having to wait for an appointment to apply for a German visa to join their families, who have already left the country. The security situation as well as human rights in Afghanistan have worsened under the Taliban rule.

With AFP, KNA, epd